As Israel prepares to receive the dead bodies of the three Bibases, the Jerusalem Post took a look back at Hamas’s claim that they don’t harm children, and how the kidnapping of the Bibas family was received in international media.In the now infamous video of the kidnapping of Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas on October 7, a Hamas terrorist can be heard instructing, “Let no one harm her so that they know of our humanity,” while simultaneously taking the family hostage into Gaza.“Leave her alive,” he said while touching her on her shoulders against her will, “she has children with her.” This video was used at the time by pro-Hamas individuals as evidence that Hamas allegedly did not want to harm women and children. Others took it as evidence that the three were in fact not taken captive at all.
There were many posts and comments on social media that read along these lines. One post said, “This video shows Palestinians on October 7 protecting the Bibas family and others from the Hannibal leadership of Israeli forces and using their own bodies as human shields. Israel killed the Bibas family a few weeks later.”Several others have almost identical wording. On October 7 itself, Hamas’s Qassam Brigades broadcast a message to the town of Zikim, as they infiltrated it, saying, “We are now in Zikim and under your house and inside it as well.
Hamas's claims to not harm children
A few days later, on October 11, following Israel’s claims that Hamas killed children on October 7, the terrorist group released a statement saying: “The resistance does not target children, and the Western media must be accurate and not biased towards the Zionist narrative.”The IDF was able to confirm, after securing footage, that Shiri and her two sons were taken to Gaza alive. After being taken to Khan Yunis on October 7, they were detained by a terror group called Kataib Mujahidin.
To this day, Hamas claims that Israel was responsible for the death of the Bibas family and that the three were killed in an IAF strike on Gaza. However, the IDF never confirmed this, saying that “Hamas continues to act in a cruel and inhuman manner.”At the end of October, Hamas published a video of the father, Yarden Bibas, in captivity being told his family was dead and that Israel was responsible.On Thursday, as Hamas prepared a stage on which to present the bodies to the media, before handing them to the Red Cross, the terror group released a statement via a spokesperson, Abu Bilal, saying, “The Bibas family was killed in a deliberate occupation strike on their place of detention.”1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were kidnapped by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups on October 7, including men, women, children, infants, the elderly, and disabled people.
An estimated 53 children and youth were killed in the October 7 massacre, Justice Minister Yariv Levin said in a report sent to the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) executive director and the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s (CRC) in August 2024.In some cases, entire families were killed in what a February 2025 report by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, has coined “kinocide” – the targeting of families.